Collaborative Design and Implementation of a large University's Web-based Course

This paper discusses issues relating to the design, development, and delivery processes of multimedia modules such as Macromedia Flash®, Shockwave movies®, and Quicktime movies®. These modules were employed to teach an undergraduate plant biology class at a large southwest university. Each medium has different strengths and weaknesses. Their proper use resulted from the collaboration among the content experts, instructional designers, and multimedia developers. Equipped with modern web technologies, instructional designers have abundant resources to deliver courses based in a multimedia and rich with interactivity. However, design is only one of several crucial factors of a successful web-based course. No matter how rich the media features are, obstacles during implementation hinder students from effective learning. For example, faculty without experience in multimedia development and distance education may under-estimate the required cost and resources, which may result in a delay of delivery and frustration. In addition, inexperienced Web developers might not realize the diversity of user computers. Web pages look good in a particular platform, a particular browser, and a particular setting might look different in other computers. Further, digital movie is said to be a useful illustration tool, however, lack of appropriate plug-ins and bandwidth may make the media unusable. VanHorn (2000) realized that bandwidth limitation would worsen the digital divide. Unfortunately, Web-based multimedia developers might not be aware of this limitation. In light of these potential obstacles, this paper dis cusses how a major university designed, developed and delivered a featurerich web-based course for plant biology. It was found that in this case the design and delivery processes were more problematic than development. Solutions derived from our experience are suggested.